"Commentary from the Countryside"Thoughts on current events, history, homesteading, preparedness, real food, and anything else I find interesting, from a cranky, middle-aged woman's common-sense perspective.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Apple Peeler Gadget Review

Haven't you always wanted to try one of these gadgets? I looked at them for years, but never thought it would really work, so didn't buy one. Then one day my Mom happened to find one at a discount store, and brought it home for me, so here goes.

First apple done!

At first I couldn't figure out how to work it. I stuck an apple on the forks, just like in the picture on the manual, turned the crank, and the apple promptly popped off and bounced across the table. Hmmmm. I had it exactly like the picture! Coming to the conclusion that the instruction manual wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, I tossed it and started puzzling it out on my own. Eureka! The corkscrew looking part will actually retract all the way to the right if I push this little lever, then when I put the apple on, it fits right up against the blade and doesn't pop off.

It goes really quick - stick the top of the apple on the fork, spin the crank, and the little blade slices away the peel and the circle blade cuts the core right out. The peel comes off in one long ribbon, and the circle blade actually does get all of the core. The inner blade slices the apple into a long spiral. It took only a few minutes to finish the bag of apples, and this method was wonderful for prepping the apples for drying, as each apple was easily sliced top to bottom, resulting in a stack of neat, even slices perfect for the dehydrator.

Bowl full just that quick

Slices in water with lemon juice to prevent browning

So prepping my bag of boughten apples for drying was easy and painless with this little gadget, but I can't give it a full five stars.
The suction cup on the bottom of the unit is useless, it wouldn't stick to any surface that I tried. I had to hold the unit down with one hand while I turned the crank. I may remove the suction cup, drill some holes through the base, and bolt it to a board for stability.
The apples I purchased came from carefully tended and sprayed trees that were genetically chosen for big round apples. In a normal year, I'd be using the gnarly, odd-sized apples from my antique Northern Spy tree in my yard. I don't think this gadget would handle those quite as well.
My take on it? If you can find this apple gadget for ten dollars or less (or get it as a gift), and plan to do large, uniform apples, it is certainly worth it.

The strange weather we had this spring caused the loss of about 75% of our local apple crop, so apples are few and expensive. My tree provided me with three bushels of apples last year; this year it bore not one single solitary apple. My famous home-made applesauce is in short supply, as only three jars remain of the over seventy I canned up last year. Hopefully I'll be able to find some more reasonably priced apples and build up a little stock of dried apples and then maybe make some applesauce for special occasions.

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The breeze is brisk and happy today, laughing as it whirls around the house, stirring up some early fallen leaves. Large gray clouds are playing tag with the sunshine, making my kitchen go from brightly lit to dim and gloomy at random times. Good smells fill the air as I'm busy canning chicken, corn, and beans, and dehydrating the apples. I love Fall!

2 comments:

Little sis Lisa has the same apple peeler-corer-slicer. Hers works great, even the suction thingie on the bottom. Glad you were able to make yours work! It sure does simply the process for drying and for pies...

An apple peeler is the greatest invention. I have one like that only mine clamps on the table top not with a suction base. They work great. even on knotty apples. Ya have to do a lil more trim work with the knotty ones but its better than peelin em all wif a knife. Those things also work on medium size pears too. Thas what I use to peel pears for preserves. If you can find an old treadle sewing machine base, the metal part, screw a board on top to make a table like surface an then anchor the peeler to it, pull up a chair an peel away. Keep up the good work, hugs

Autumn Glory

About Me

I'm a middle-aged single mom, a stubborn gal of German/Dutch heritage, homesteader, writer, observer and experimenter, trying for a simple life and self-sufficiency. My struggles to re-learn old skills and maintain my small homestead have become a journey of reconnecting to my farming roots and learning of my family history.
I cling to my faith and my family as the most important things in life.
I'm conservative but not a republican; opinionated, a little cranky, and definitely not politically correct.
I go by "Cat" as it has become my nickname in chatting with other homesteaders online. What's it short for? You'll never guess...Catalpa. I use it as my web name because we had a wonderful big old Catalpa tree in our backyard when I was a kid. I have so many great memories of that tree and the tire swing that hung from it's branches. My dream is to build a small off grid home, grow most of my own food or trade for it locally. And in the back yard will be a swing hanging from a giant tree.